The season started out a little hectic in early April, for lack of testing opportunities. Moreover, Roots Racing had a less than perfect first run due to problems with the electrical system, but now they are headed in the right direction. At the 5th event of the season, they even climbed all the way up the ladder in the SP3 class, which was the highlight up to now. The car is a Subaru BRZ, quite a rare sight compared to its far more popular technological twin, the Toyota GT86, which even gets its own cup at the Nürburgring endurance championship.

Just as rare of characters is Tim Schrick; a German television presenter, test driver, and race pilot known in the scene as a bit of a maverick and passionate expert drifter. He and project partner Spelsberg founded the Roots Racing team and worked on the Subaru BRZ's body. Schrick was fascinated by the Japanese sports coupé from the moment he laid eyes on it. "I told Holger that this car is genius from the bottom up. It's super lightweight, compact, torsion-resistant, and it has a rear-wheel drive. Our version also does away with ABS and traction control. Instead of e-gas, we’re still using a conventional mechanical accelerator." In addition, the naturally aspirated engine helps qualify the car for the relatively liberal SP3 class. The BRZ’s advantage? Modern competitor vehicles featuring naturally aspirated engines are making themselves scarce.

At any rate, BILSTEIN is excited about Schrick’s VLN project. The company not only offered the team its expertise in terms of suspension systems, but BILSTEIN acts as their partner over the entire distance of ten scheduled races. From a technical standpoint, the sub frame’s rear link points were moved slightly, and fully adjustable racing shock absorbers were installed. This was coordinated directly at the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife in cooperation with BILSTEIN motorsports. The BRZ might offer a spring rate which is already optimised for the race track profile. It was also lowered to the extent that any additional millimetre would be counter-productive to the car’s performance.

The cool BRZ, with its large, old-school spoiler fin is enjoying a high level of recognition already. Tim Schrick’s Facebook page alone, with almost 90,000 likes, makes sure of it. The traffic received on the videos published to-date is quite impressive itself.